Monthly Archives: June 2008

Congratulations to Malorie Blackman who is to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthdays Honours List.

Malorie says of the honour:

“I have been a professional writer for almost two decades now, so I am thrilled and honoured to receive an OBE for services to children’s literature.”

Malorie Blackman is one of the country’s most well loved and acclaimed authors for young adults. She worked as a Database Manager and Systems Programmer before becoming a full-time writer. After receiving 82 rejection letters for her first eight to ten books, her first book, Not So Stupid! was published in 1990 and was a selected title for the 1991 Feminist Book Fortnight, and Malorie participated in the first BBC TV Black Women’s Screenwriting Workshop in 1991. She has written a number of books for young readers which have been dramatised successfully for children’s television including the Whizziwig series and has worked on other TV projects such as Byker Grove and Pig Heart Boy which won a BAFTA for best children’s drama 2000.

Malorie’s titles for Random House Children’s Books include Cloud Busting (selected for the first Booked Up Scheme in 2007), Hacker, Thief and Pig Heart Boy. For older readers her name has become famed for the Noughts & Crosses sequence, where set ideas of race, heritage, belief, power, money and love are challenged – the first book was recently adapted for the stage and directed by Dominic Cooke for the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing to critical acclaim in the Winter Season 2007/8, in Stratford upon Avon and on tour around the UK. A fourth book is to be published in November 2008, moving on the story in Double Cross, which is set to be one of the most highly anticipated books of the year.

Malorie’s reputation has steadily grown and she has been awarded a number of prizes, and has been involved in countless projects enabling children and young adults to access her work, and get interested in reading. She lives in Kent with her husband and daughter – and a collection of around 15,000 books!

I believe that this should be supported (the campaign against age banding that is). There has been quite a lot of movement in the blogosphere and in national press about this – both for and against. Some links follow below: